An examination of certain political, narrative, and academic issues from a reasonably conservative perspective.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt

One of Salem Oregon's Unofficial Top 1000 Conservative Political Bloggers!!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Here's part two of my re-postings on Kwanzaa. Part one is here. I decided not to wait unti tommorow. Some of the links are down, and some of the wording has been changed, such is the fluid nature of the internet. Still, here is Part Two:

The socialist (actually Marxist) nature of the seven
principles, the Nguzo Saba, of Kwanzaa is addressed, but once again dismissed by
Riley. Of the seven principles of Kwanzaa (unity, self-determination, collective
work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith),
Riley writes "The ujima [collective work and responsibility] and ujamaa
[cooperative economics] principles certainly sounds socialist, but any of the
Kwanzaa principles can be interpreted to mean that through private means we
should help others. I do think that these principles - if the focus is on
private efforts, and not Big Government - have merit year-round in building
black communities."

True enough. Who would have problems with the
incredibly general idea of "faith" or "creativity" etc.? I mean, how many
anti-faith (not necessarily religious faith-- faith here is used too generally
for that) people are out there? How many people are against
creativity?

But the seven principles of the Nguzo Saba were not created
from an ideological vacuum, nor have they evolved from centuries of social
development, such as Christmas' general "peace on Earth and goodwill toward
men"-- a process that defines the general principle with a cultural
understanding and imbues it with a meaning beyond the mere vague words. When
scrutinized beyond the thinnest of superficial gloss, it is evident (from Karenga's own wordsUPDATED 12/10/10 & re-checked 12/26/12: *sigh* Once again the link
is down. You'd think that the works of Karenga would last longer on the web than
my tiny blog-- but no. Once again a search for these quotes have come up empty.)
that the seven principles, are, in fact, merely Marxist principles created by
Karenga for the expressed purpose of promoting Marxist doctrine.

There is
no question of Karenga's Marxism. He makes no effort to hide his Marxism and
openly promotes it. From Scholer: "Eight years later [in 1989 according to the
wikipedia entry on
Karenga] California State University at Long Beach made Karenga the head of
its Black Studies Department. Karenga had toned down his rhetoric and abandoned
his cultural nationalism for straightforward Marxism." This "toned down" Marxism
continued to be expressed in the seven principles as detailed in the Kawaida Theory:
An African Communitarian Philosophy, (UPDATED 12/26/12 alas, this link is basically down. It's amazing to me how quickly these links change) his book from 1980.

Karenga
expounds on the intended principles of the Nguzu Saba here 1965
(UPDATED 12/10/10 & still down in 12/26/12: This link was to the same
site as above and, as I said, it's down).

For Ujima (collective work and
responsibility) he writes, "The third principle encourages self-criticism and
personal evaluation, as it relates to the common good of the family/community.
Without collective work and struggle, progress is impossible. The family and the
community must accept the reality that we are collectively responsible for our
failures, as well as our victories and achievements. Discussions concerning each
family member's responsibility prove helpful in defining and achieving family
goals."

For Ujamaa (cooperative economics) he writes, "Out of the
fundamental concepts of 'African Communal Living' comes the fourth principle of
Kwanzaa. In a community or family, wealth and resources should be shared. On the
national level, cooperative economics can help African-Americans take physical
control of their own destinies. On this day, ideas should be shared and
discussed for cooperative economic efforts to provide for needs as related to
housing, education, food, day care, health, transportation and other goods and
services."

Let's see here... communal living, collective work, and a
fading of the individual through "self-criticism and personal evaluation, as it
relates to the common good of the family/community" [I must add that this "self-evaluation" is a mainstay of repressive communist regimes, particularly in the uber repressive North Korea under Kim Il Sung]. I think it's perfectly
reasonable to conclude that that an avowed Marxist (cultural nationalist at the
time) talking in these terms is preaching to Marxist principles; therefore Ujima
and Ujamaa do not just sound socialist, they are
socialist.

When Karenga says Ujamaa he meant specifically the definitions
I quoted above. As the originator of Kwanzaa, these are indisputably the
specific meanings of Kwanzaa's founding, generalized principles. So while Riley
maintains that "any of the Kwanzaa principles can be interpreted to mean that
through private means we should help others," she is presenting a mis-reading
that is obvious once Karenga's writings and theories are examined. If we are not
a socialist or a Marxist, we should look elsewhere for guiding principles to
improve our communities.

Riley tacitly acknowledges Karenga's violent
history by writing "And while Maulana Karenga’s history of abusing women is
highly problematic, I believe that events can transcend problematic founders
(look at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia back in 1787)." Again, an
attempt to build an equivalency, in this case between Karenga and the attendees
of the Constitutional Convention.

Rather than discuss in detail the
myriad of differences between Karenga and various members of the Constitutional
Convention (men whose births are separated by about two centuries), I will go
into some detail about Karenga's acknowledged abuse as publicly reported by the
Los Angeles Times and related by Scholer.

"On September 17,
1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious
assault and false imprisonment. The charges stemmed from a May 9, 1970 incident
in which Karenga and two others tortured two women who Karenga believed had
tried to kill him by placing 'crystals' in his food and water.

"A year
later the Los Angeles Times described the events: 'Deborah Jones, who
once was given the title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were
whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being
ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was
placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of
her own big toes was tightened in a vice. Karenga, head of US, also put
detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said.'"

I'm sorry, but I
don't believe that the phrase "highly problematic" really does justice to the
imprisonment, stripping, binding, beating, burning, and the mangling of a toe
during the systematic torture of two women by Karenga and a pair of
cohorts.

Karenga's sanity can also be fairly questioned. Scholer again
writes: "The shooting at UCLA [the Jan. 17, 1969 killing of Black Panthers John
Jerome Huggins and Alprentice Carter by US Organization members George and Larry
Stiner immediately following Huggins' and Carter's verbal attack of Karenga
during a public meeting] caused Karenga to become deeply paranoid and spurred
his bizarre behavior. At his trial, the question of Karenga's sanity arose. The
psychiatrist's report stated, 'This man now represents a picture which can be
considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and elusions,
inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the
environment.' The psychiatrist observed that Karenga talked to his blanket and
imaginary persons and believed that he had been attacked by
dive-bombers."

While it is, perhaps, true that at times "events can
transcend problematic founders," Karenga's problems, to me, are an awful lot to
transcend.

And of course, this begs the question as to what an event will
become once it transcends its founder. Would Kwanzaa become transformed into
something more then a racially divisive, anti-religious, Marxist promoting
event?

As I wrote in part 1 of this post, as Kwanzaa became more popular within
mainstream Black American communities, Karenga backed down from his virulently
anti-religious bent. As I stated before, Karenga's newer books like Kwanzaa:
A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture (1997) tell lies
(contradicted by Karenga's earlier works) about Kwanzaa not being intended as an
alternative to Christian holidays.

But this inauthentic backing away from
its anti-religious roots has not been coupled with Kwanzaa backing away from the
radical black separatist movement. At least none is in evidence at the Official
Kwanzaa Information Center as Scholer, once again, points out. "Still, some
charge that the holiday and its official black, green, and red flag promotes
racial separatism and violence. Says the official Kwanzaa Information Center:
'red, or the blood, stands as the top of all things. We lost our land through
blood; and we cannot gain it except through blood. We must redeem our lives
through the blood. Without the shedding of blood there can be no redemption of
this race.' The Kwanzaa Information Center also notes that the flag 'has become
the symbol of devotion for African people in America to establish an independent
African nation on the North American Continent.'"

Okay... So the official Kwanzaa Information
Center (UPDATED 12/10/10 & 12/26/12: The site this
link is to is no longer the "official" Kwanzaa Information Center-- gosh, a lot
changes in a year. It is now simply the Kwanzaa Information Center. The Official
Kwanzaa Website [at least according to its web address] is here and gives
pretty much the watered-down, family-friendly schtick-- among the ample links
for making a donation.) is basically calling for a race war --the shedding of
blood to redeem the race etc.-- not unlike white supremacists. Great. Actually
the quote Scholder mentions is from the "Feel Good Information"
section (I am not making this up) of the Kwanzaa Information Center's
website. The quote regarding the Black Nationalist flag in full is:

"Origin of the Flag of Pan-Africanism and/or
Black Nationalism Red is for the Blood. Black is the Black People. Green is for
the Land.

"Red, Black and Green are the oldest national colors known to
man. They are used as the flag of the Black Liberation Movement in America
today, but actually go back to the Zinj Empires of ancient Africa, which existed
thousands of years before Rome, Greece, France, England or America.

"The
Red, or the blood, stands as the top of all things. We lost our land through
blood; and we cannot gain it except through blood. We must redeem our lives
through the blood. Without the shedding of blood there can be no redemption of
this race. However, the bloodshed and sorrow will not last always. The Red
significantly stands in our flag as a reminder of the truth of history, and that
men must gain and keep their liberty, even at the risk of bloodshed.

"The
Black is in the middle. The Black man in this hemisphere has yet to obtain land
which is represented by the Green. The acquisition of land is the highest and
noblest aspiration for the Black man on this continent, since without land there
can be no freedom, justice, independence, or equality."

A little further
down the page is the "devotion for African people in America to establish an
independent African nation on the North American Continent" part as related by
Scholer.

For an event to transcend the problematic founders, paraphrasing
Riley, the event must move beyond both the faults and the intentions of the
founder. If we were to peel away from Kwanzaa the racial exclusivity of the
black separatism, the anti-religious ardor, the rituals designed to replace
Christmas celebrations, the Marxist doctrines contained within the Nguzo Saba's
seven principles, all of this imbued by its angry founder Karenga-- what's
left?

I understand that Riley was somewhat ambivalent to Kwanzaa and that
the very short blurb was not intended as an endorsement of the "holiday." I have
nothing against Shay Riley. I have never met Riley, never (to my knowledge) have
read anything else written by Riley, and this very long posting was not meant,
in any way, to be an attack against Riley personally.

But Riley's
ambivalence is something very common, and found both in my own and my wife's
family. There's a real lack of understanding regarding the fringe origins of
Kwanzaa. The idea seems to be that if Hallmark makes Kwanzaa cards, the holiday
must be legitimate and not a bad thing. My family shies away from scrutinizing
"black things" (best to leave it all alone) and my wife's family generally give
black opinions, theories, and views (no matter how wild or fantastic) their
quick approval and then an almost completely unearned pass. I don't think
there's anyone in either branches of my family that would support Kwanzaa after
learning the facts about its origins and creator.

Kwanzaa is founded on
principles that are incompatible with today's mores and unacceptable by
mainstream America's current values-- mores and values resulting from the many
years of struggles for civil rights.

It
attacks religion rather than respects it-- uses outlandish language and
concocted suppositions to coerce a needless and artificial racial
confrontation.

Kwanzaa's seven principles sacrifice the rights of the
individual upon a Marxist altar-- for the sake of communal work, collective
economics, and sacrifice of self, all designed to help control Black American
individuals and bring them into a black separatist fold-- making them think
"correctly."

Kwanzaa was founded by a radical and violent black
nationalist; a man who was convicted of personally participating in the
atrocious tortures of two black women, as well being very closely (if not
directly) linked to the1969 murders of two members of the Black
Panthers.

Kwanzaa is a contrived, artificial, and inauthentic holiday
championing anger and alienation. It is not something to celebrate.